


Sky Children

by callunavulgari



Category: The Legend of Zelda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Dubious Consent, Implied Torture, Implied or Off-stage Rape/Non-con, M/M, Non Consensual, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-03
Updated: 2013-07-03
Packaged: 2017-12-17 14:44:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/868734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callunavulgari/pseuds/callunavulgari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Link was young, his Gran would tell him stories—stories of a Hyrule still grounded, not yet risen to the sky like a hatchling whose wings have just begun to dry. She would tell him of the frightful creatures that made that diseased world its home; the ghosts and the dead, the skeletons that would rise like ashes from the ground itself at the last fading ray of the sun.</p><p>But you're safe here, Link, she would tell him. Here where there is no phantom ground to prey upon the weak. Here in the sky, where we belong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sky Children

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this quite a while ago, when just the rumors of Skyward Sword had been leaked. I was intrigued by the idea of a Hyrule in the sky, so I decided to do my take on it before the game came out. Then the game did come out and I kinda hid most of what I had away because, well, it's incredibly dark and nothing like Skyward Sword. But I found it today and decided to finish it, so here we go. 
> 
> (Not tagging it as Skyward Sword because well, it isn't Skyward Sword.)

When Link was young, his Gran would tell him stories—stories of a Hyrule still grounded, not yet risen to the sky like a hatchling whose wings have just begun to dry. She would tell him of the frightful creatures that made that diseased world it's home; the ghosts and the dead, the skeletons that would rise like ashes from the ground itself at the last fading ray of the sun.  
  
 _But you're safe here, Link_ , she would tell him. _Here where there is no phantom ground to prey upon the weak. Here in the sky, where we belong._  
  
They were tall tales, of course. Things to frighten the children of the sky into complacence towards their steel cage.   
  
None of it mattered once the dead managed to make it to their floating, gilded birdcage of a prison.   
  
None of it mattered, because for all the children of the sky had managed to fly, their wings had been well and truly clipped since.  
  
So their castle fell; its citizens crumbling under the might of the man who'd risen with the ghosts of Hylian's long dead. It fell, and it had such a very long way to go.  
  
.  
  
But that was years past, when Link was naught but a boy. Since then he had grown into a man—a man known for being the right hand of the King. His killing hand, the Hylians all whispered in the dark. For Link was not a name they knew—to them, Link was nameless; awarded hundreds of nicknames all varying degrees of hypocrisy. He supposed that to them, the names were meant to strike fear in the hearts of children, like those stories from his childhood.   
  
Now, he was the tall tale—the bogeyman come to life and given a trust position among the council.  
  
Mostly, the executions of the unfaithful were given to the redeads, the imps, and the ghosts. "It sates their bloodlust, see," the King explained to him as they watched a redead tear its way through a fourteen year old girl's neck. Link wondered what her crime was.  
  
"They get jumpy, cooped up in the sky like plucked hens," the pig king grinned, taking a sip from one of the many goblets on the table before him. Slaughter had become mealtime sport, in the recent years; a taste that had never quite grown on Link.  
  
"Of course," Ganon went on, wiping his mouth with the back of one brown hand before turning a cool smirk towards Link. "We have to keep you satiated as well, my young hero. What do they call you nowadays, pet? I forget."  
  
Link had learned at a young age that one did not flinch away from the King of Darkness, so he held his ground when that same hand, still damp with wine, caressed his cheek,  a thumb tucking itself along the edge of his lip.  
  
He did not speak; nor would he ever. The King knew this.  
  
Ganon laughed and his grip became firmer; harsh enough to make Link's jaw ache. The thumb was joined by the middle and pointer finger, the callused pads of his King's long fingers pushing past his lips to prod at the stump that had once been his tongue. Link shuddered faintly, and curled his lips in around those fingers; gave them a long suck and tasted blood and bitter wine. Ganon laughed again, delighted, his eyes growing dark as he listened to the wet sounds of Link's mouth blend with the wet, gurgling sounds coming from the show behind him.  
  
"Ah yes, my good hero," Ganon purred, reaching over to pull Link into his lap as easily as if he were a sack of feathers. "Sometimes I wish I hadn't been so hasty in chopping off that silver tongue of yours; I'm sure you would have put it to marvelous use."  
  
Link will always be glad he had.  
  
A triumphant cry came from a goblin across the room as another civilian was led into the ring; this one older—frail, with a stooped back. This 'fight' wouldn't last long, but then, they never really did. Link turned away as the old man begged for mercy, and busied himself with unfastening Ganon's breeches—freeing his thick cock.  
  
A distraction, however terrible, was in order.  
  
He tried not to listen, or think about the old man getting torn to shreds. Most of all, he tried not to remember how on sunny days in his youth, that same old man used to give him free apples.  
  
He didn't succeed.  
  
.  
  
The thing is, Hyrule has a princess. Or had, if you asked any of its current residents. But Link knows the truth of the matter, how the Princess Zelda's brain rots in the dungeons while the corpses of her parents rot next to her.  
  
The King had once let Link bring her meals, back before he'd sharpened Link into a weapon. Before Link had foolishly tried to spring her from her cell.   
  
She was his friend, once. Back when the sky didn't ring with the sounds of screams. Before the young girls had to stop worrying about breaking nails or tearing their dresses, and start worrying about being raped in some dark alley by a troll. She was his friend, and he had let this happen to her. He had let himself be used by the king, and watched his friend cry in the dark. So he'd tried to free her—tried to help her make it out of the city; hoping she would find it better on the ground so far below them.  
  
They'd been caught, of course, and Ganon, furious and disappointed in him, had let the goblins take turns with both of them. They'd been beaten, raped, and tortured and when they were at the brink of death, they would be nurtured back to health. Then the process would begin again.  
  
Two and a half years of this, and Link hadn't gone towards her cell since.  
  
.  
  
What people don't tend to know though, is that there is a resistance lead by a boy who's said to be a shadow himself.  
  
.  
  
When Link was fourteen, the Dark Lord had taken him away, and created something.   
  
The creature dripped shadows for the first hour or so of its birth, transparent and nearly collapsing back into nothing but the shadows in the corners of the room. Link watched with horror, fighting against his shackles as the creature had gained substance. He'd watched the shadows shape a familiar chin; watched inky dark strands of hair solidify; coiling softly down the gray skin of the creatures back.  
  
When the creature opened its eyes, they burned like embers.  
  
It had sought him out first—paying no mind to the guards or the King, those glowing eyes just for Link; seeking him out like he was the sun. It went to him, stroked a hand down Link's cheek, and made a soft crooning sound of familiarity that had Ganon's smirk turn into a displeased grimace.  
  
 _I am your master_ , Ganon had growled, having the Iron Knuckles at his side take a step forward, brandishing their axes at the creature threateningly.  
  
The creature did not tear his gaze away from Link, but nodded all the same.  
  
Placated, Ganon had left Link strapped to the table, closing the doors behind him.  
  
Left to his shadow's whims, Link expected torture. He expected pain.  
  
What he did not expect was his shadow's smile, or the voice that came from its throat when it said, "Well then, Master, would you like to sit up?"  
  
.  
  
When the time is right, when his shadow has slipped through the darkness to meet this boy leader—when all the pieces are in place, only then will they take back what once was theirs. They will take back their gilded prison, dash it to pieces, and take their chances on the ground below.  
  
Hyrule will flourish once more.  
  
.  
  
"My pet," Ganon whispers to him on the nights that he's chosen to have Link warm his sheets. When his girl whores have been put to the side to make room for the biggest whore in all of Hyrule, her hero.  
  
The King tells Link stories, of other times—other lives that they have lived. He whispers of wind fish and dark worlds, of all the times that Link had beaten him. He tells Link of the times that they had been lovers before he'd shown his hand—when Link, newly knighted, had gladly come to his bed. How they'd raced their horses across Hyrule and made love on the shore of Lake Hylia, and how his face had twisted when Ganon betrayed him.  
  
He told him of the times that Link was the king at Queen Zelda's side, how their kingdom had flourished until the three of them were born yet again.  
  
He rages about all the times that Link had killed him, fucking Link harshly as he hisses curses into his ear, his fingers leaving bruises all over his body.  
  
After, he will lie with Link in the ruined sheets and stroke his back with a calloused hand. "My pet," he will whisper to Link fondly, slipping into a contented sleep with Link's blood still drying on his hands.  
  
.  
  
The King is mad, madder than the rest of them know.  
  
Sometimes, rarely, he invites Link's shadow to his bed as well. Listen to his shadow purr as it swallows his cock, how it whispers the word master as it concedes to whatever it has been told to do. He may have the shadow fuck Link, ordering it to go faster, harder, rougher, until Link whines deep in his throat and comes.   
  
Once they had both fucked him at the same time, two cocks stretching him so wide that he had sobbed with the pain of it—too much inside of him and not enough lube to ease the way.   
  
After, once Ganon is sleeping, his shadow will come to him—curl around him and soothe him until the pain eases into a manageable ache. They will fall asleep wrapped around each other and in the morning, Ganon will send his shadow back to its cell and Link back to his.  
  
.  
  
"Master," his shadow whispers one night, emerging from a pool of darkness at the foot of his bed. "I have an idea."  
  
.  
  
Link meets Sheik for the first time in the darkest hour of the night, when the moon has gone for the month, leaving the streets dark as death and just as empty.  
  
The boy leader is not what Link was expecting, less part shadow and more part sun, with his golden hair and brown skin—eyes the color of ripe apples and coagulated blood.  
  
Link's shadows stands at his side, answering Sheik's questions when Link himself cannot. They tell him of the princess rotting in the dungeons, of the places least patrolled, and together, in the quiet dark of night, they hatch a plan.  
  
.  
  
Sheik stays far from the castle, even if it may have been easier to infiltrate if he'd played at being Ganon's man.  
  
"That's what you are for," he'd said quietly, hair tucked into a cowl to avoid the light of the moon. He had drummed his fingers on his thighs, crouched in the mouth of a sewage pipe. "In another life, perhaps you would have played at hero while I would have been the pig king's weapon. That life is not for us," he finished apologetically, dipping his head in Link's direction.  
  
He would never have words at his disposal, never again, so instead he touched Sheik's face—traced the line of his brow and the curve of his cheek until Sheik leaned into his hand, letting out a little noise of approval.  
  
"He likes to touch," Link's shadow says from the darkness as Sheik's eyes go heavy-lidded with pleasure. Link gently strokes around the edge of his ear, smiling when Sheik lets out a happy little moan.   
  
"As I am not often touched, it appears that I quite crave the feeling," Sheik whispers back, pushing into Link's hand like the tomcat's lurking about the alleys closer to the castle.  
  
Sheik jumps when Link's shadow joins them, wrapping its arms around him from behind as Link continues to pet his face. Gently, it tugs the cowl down, running its fingers through Sheik's golden hair and sighing when Sheik gives a shuddery little exhale in reply. Link grins and moves back as his shadow wrestles Sheik out of the drainage pipe and into the grass just to the side. It's still sheltered by trees, so the moon isn't going to give them away.  
  
"I like to touch, too," his shadow whispers, placing a soft kiss against Sheik's pulse—chuckling when it jumps beneath his lips.  
  
Link crouches down before them, exchanging a grin with his shadow, and hikes Sheik's shirt up to his armpits, leaning in to wrap his lips around one pert brown nipple.  
  
His shadow is there to cup its hand over Sheik's mouth to muffle the cry.  
  
.  
  
"Where have you been these days?" Ganon asks him the next time Link comes to his bed. "You know how much I like to have you in my sheets."  
  
Link shrugs, sinking down onto Ganon's cock in one smooth motion.  
  
The king whimpers against his throat like an infant, gurgling a bit when Link starts to ride him in earnest—hard and brutal, just the way Ganon likes it.  
  
He forgets his question quickly after that.  
  
.  
  
A stable girl comes with Sheik the next time he visits, her red hair only slightly less conspicuous in the moonlight. Her smiles are sweet enough that Link thinks they shouldn't belong in this world. Creatures as innocent as this are often stamped out too quickly under Ganon's rule. Briefly, he thinks of Zelda in her cell beneath the castle, how she'd held his hand gently through the bars as she ate—her smiles lighting up her gaunt face.  
  
Sheik tells them that she's from below—that she'd made the journey here in her youth, her father and uncle staying far below.  
  
"It isn't like in the stories," she tells them earnestly. "The lands are no more deadly at night than they are here, provided you know your way around a sword."  
  
It's hard to think of this girl with a sword in her hand, all that red hair tied up and armor wrapping her in steel. She laughs when Link's shadow tells her this.  
  
"Silly Dark," she murmurs, pulling up her blouse to show them the light-weight mail beneath. "You don't need _armor_ if you're quick."  
  
The lesson sticks, as does the nickname.  
  
.  
  
"I visited the princess today," Dark whispers, from his spot at Link's side. His shadow is pleasantly cool against Link's sweaty flesh, still overheated from spending the day at Ganon's feet, watching the people of Hyrule be slaughtered like cattle. Link nods wearily, gesturing for him to go on.  
  
"She thought me a phantom at first, but she is well, more so than we expected." Dark gives him a look, eyes glowing red in the darkness. "She is a strong woman, more than enough to be a fit ruler."  
  
Link nods again, considering. "Sheik will be happy to learn that she is not mad," his shadow says for him, smiling in understanding.   
  
How much longer, Link wonders and again, his shadow answers him.  
  
"A few more weeks, Master. No more than that."  
  
.  
  
"Master can do it," his shadow tells Sheik the next time they meet. "Slit the king's throat while the pig is balls deep inside him. For that matter, so could I, but the king doesn't like me half as much as he likes my better half."  
  
Sheik gives Link a horrified look. "He makes you...?"  
  
Link scoffs and his shadow laughs outright. "It's nothing we're not used to," he tells Sheik in Link's stead.   
  
"He can do it," his shadow repeats when Sheik looks dubious. "You and I can save the princess, help our people slaughter the army of the dead, and Link can kill the King of Evil. Link always kills Ganon, that's just how it is."  
  
Link wonders sometimes, if his shadow remembers things that he does not. Or maybe, he thinks when Dark turns a grin on him, they've both started believing in Ganon's stories.  
  
.  
  
The last time that Ganon fucks him, Link gives it his all. He chokes around Ganon's cock as the man fucks his mouth, drool dripping down his chin. He hisses when Ganon slaps him around, wailing when Ganon works his way inside with nothing but spit to ease the way.   
  
He fucks back onto him, whimpering like he's gagging for it when Ganon wraps a hand around his dick. It's difficult, to make himself aroused enough to come, so he thinks of Sheik on his hands and knees—of his shadow's mouth stretched around his cock—of the feel of their hands on him.  
  
He comes, body arching, and feels it when Ganon follows him over—bottoming out and spilling deep inside.  
  
Then, when Ganon has relaxed into sleep, Link rolls over and opens up his throat.  
  
.  
  
Zelda is a gaunt skeleton standing in the town square—her lank, listless hair falling to her waist, her bones clearly visible, even wrapped in the regal dress that Sheik found who knows where. Her feet are bare and dirty, one of her toes missing.   
  
But her eyes are shining and proud, one arm around Sheik's shoulder and the other around Dark as they all but hold her up.   
  
Their eyes—all three of them—light up when they spot him as he emerges, hands still covered in blood.   
  
Zelda nods at him, giving him a pained smile before she speaks.   
  
"The King of Evil is dead!" she shouts, her voice creaking with disuse, but strong all the same.   
  
"Long live the queen!" her people shout in return.   
  



End file.
